Fidelio, Ludwig van Beethoven’s sole opera, speaks passionately about the composer’s deeply held beliefs about freedom and liberty.  The opera tells the story of a young woman, Leonora/Fidelio, who goes undercover as a young male prison warden where her husband, Florestan, is unjustly being kept prisoner.  Fidelio’s plan is to find a way to – somehow – free her husband.  With its stirring choruses and soaring vocal ensemble music, Fidelio is a perfect opera for a performance in concert.

This season of Fidelio honours the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, and commemorates South Africa’s Human Rights Day with its message of freedom.  The opera was first performed by Cape Town Opera in 2004 in the actual exercise yard of the Robben Island prison, marking the 10th anniversary of a democratic South Africa. 

Johanni van Oostrum will sing her first Leonore, Musa Ngqungwana. performs the role of Rocco. Mandisinde Mbuyazwe appears as prison governor Don Pizzaro, and Brittany Smith sings the role of Marzelline, with new narrations written for this production by Amy Jephta.  Maestro Jeremy Silver will conduct the Cape Town
Philharmonic in this vast work and the Production Designer is Michael Mitchell.